IA22.15
Transcript 1. File Note: This conversation took place twenty seven days after the forced termination of Project: CLOCKWORK. The telephone used was the employee's phone at Mel's Diner, Los Angeles. The phone call originated from Europe; precise location not known at this time. Begins Female Voice: "Mel's Diner, can I help you?" Male Voice: "Hi." F: "Luke?" M: "Who else was it going to be?" F: "Goddess, it's good to hear your voice." M: "Yours too, Kadi. It's been a while." F: "Too long, Luke. I was beginning to think that you weren't going to call." M: "I thought that too. This is the fourth time I've called. I couldn't bring myself to say anything the first few times." F: "That was you, then." M: "I was afraid. I thought I'd end up speaking to the Doctor. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet." F: "I'm not sure he's ready yet either." M: "Good. Enough about him, though. I've got so many questions." F: "I thought you might. I've got one or two things to ask you myself." M: "I'll start with the big one, then. What happened to you, back in Vegas?" F: (sigh) "Wish I could be absolutely sure. We set the explosives, we tried to escape. Last I can be sure of we'd almost reached the surface. Then something happened and it's all a bit hazy. The Doctor found me wandering around in a daze a couple of hours after the mine blew up. He said he'd heard my footfalls from half a mile away, which is a load of nonsense if you ask me. Then we went looking for you." M: "And John?" F: "Of course. But we didn't find him. I think... I don't think he made it, Luke." M: ... F: "And then we made our way back to Los Angeles, tracked down Freddie and Roni." M: "How are they?" F: "Roni is in really bad shape. Freddie's not much better. He got her some treatment before they came back to LA, stole supplies. The state they were in, I'm not sure how they got home. On autopilot, I guess. Shock. They told us what you did." M: ... F: "That was Freddie's car you took." M: "I wasn't thinking straight." F: "And you are now?" M: "No." F: ... M: "I really thought I'd killed you. I wanted to find another way. Damn it, there should have been another way, but there really... there wasn't time. F: "Would it help if I said I would probably have done the same?" M: ... F: "We'd like to see you, Luke. I think the Doctor needs to see you." M: "See me?" F: "Well, hear your voice. He's pretty low at the moment." M: "And I'm not? Sorry. Callous bitch tendencies resurfacing. I don't want to talk to him, though. I don't want to see him. I don't even want to know how he is. I just want as much space between me and his interfering superiority." F: "Well, if you change your mind, I'll be working here for a while. We're staying with Roni and Freddie till they get back on their feet. They're doing okay, but neither of them are capable of earning a living at the moment so I'll be working at this Diner unless I can find a local guild of poetic judgement." M: "Or you could just go back to the TARDIS and get some cash from there." F: "And that's the other thing. The Doctor reckons that he's still infected with the Hydra. He doesn't want to risk the TARDIS being exposed to that. He doesn't even seem certain he can operate it while he's blind. I tried to go to the TARDIS myself, but she wouldn't let me in. Even she's hurting, Luke." M: "Yes, so everybody hurts sometimes. Tell me something I don't know." F: "I think you're hurting more than most." M: "Me? No, no. No. Having a whale of a time here. Screwing around with Quant and Versace, twisting their minds and revelling in sins of the flesh, me. Dedicated swallower of fashion." F: "I can't persuade you to come here, then?" M: "Not a chance, my dear. I'm living the high life, never been happier, never been more popular. It's hell on earth." F: "Whatever you say, Luke. If you change your mind, you've got this number." Ends Transcript 2. File Note: This conversation took place fifty nine days after the forced termination of Project: CLOCKWORK. As with transcript 1, the telephone used was the employee's phone at Mel's Diner, Los Angeles. Again, the phone call originated from Europe; precise location not known at this time. Begins Female Voice: "Mel's Diner, can I help you?" Male Voice: "Kadi, it's me." F: "Luke. Where are you? I didn't think you'd call again." M: "Well... hell, I just wanted to hear your voice. Wanted to talk to someone that I knew. Someone who cared." F: "You sound like shit." M: "I don't feel much better than that. The last few weeks have been... I went off the rails a bit. I'd got used to the idea of you and John being dead, and then finding out that you were alive and he might be... I guess I just lost my happy place. So I went looking for other happy places. I found some in London, but I got arrested for gross indecency with a peer of the realm and spent a week in jail. At least the old pervert paid for my stitches." F: "Stitches?" M: "Some of my new friends in prison decided that they could interpret justice better than the court. Nothing that shows when I've got a shirt on. My peer also paid for my trip back to the US." F: "You're in the States?" M: "I was for a week. Then I hooked up with David Bailey, and we went to Nice for some photography and hedonism. I'm in Venice now, pretending to be a fashion journalist. I honestly haven't got a fucking clue what I'm doing with my life, Kadi. Everyone looks at me as a quirky oddity, or an easy fuck, or something. I don't know how I look at myself. Not much more than that. Nobody cares who I am. I'm not sure I care either." F: "I care." M: "I know you do, Kadi. I don't know if I'm ready to come back yet, though. I don't know that I ever will be. Have you heard anything from John?" F: "If I had, I'd have said." M: "I know. So — how's life with you?" F: "Freddie's got a new job, working as a driver for one of the big studios. Seems to be cleaning up his act. Roni's doing well. Seems to be coping better every day. Better than Freddie, that's for sure. She's working on her singing, reckons there's a novelty factor there. She may break in to Hollywood, she reckons. I'm pulling in minimum wage. It's a laugh a minute." M: "And the Doctor?" F: "I was avoiding mentioning him. He's doing okay. He can see shapes now, occasional blurs of colour. He doesn't know we've been in touch. He'd probably go off looking for you if he did." M: "I'm not ready to be found yet." F: "Will you ever be?" M: "I don't know. I really wish I knew." Ends Transcript 3. File Note: This conversation took place eighty eight days after the forced termination of Project: CLOCKWORK. As with transcripts 1and 2, the telephone used was the employee's phone at Mel's Diner, Los Angeles. The phone call originated from the same area code. Begins Female Voice: "Mel's Diner, can I help you?" Male Voice: "Kadi, it's me." F: "Luke. Thank the goddess." M: "Is that relief in your voice, or are you just pleased to hear me?" F: "Git." M: "I know, but that's part of my irresistible charm." F: "So what have you been up to, Mister World Traveller." M: "Oh, the usual. I went to India to find myself. Instead, I found a billion strangers, most of whom ignored me. Which was nice. Then I got some freelance work in Singapore, actually wrote a couple of articles for once, and I spent the last two weeks with some of the most genuine guys you'll ever come across when I hitched a lift on a Vietnamese transport smuggling opium to the US. Twelve days at sea with no liquor, nothing that you could get high on without the captain slitting your throat, and nobody trying to wangle their way into my ample trousers. I tell you, deprivation and sunstroke really help to clear the mind." F: "And is your mind clear now?" M: "Not completely. I still feel guilty, and guess I always will. But it gets easier. I guess it boils down to quantum theory. Until I know for sure whether John's alive or dead, he's both. And that's better than nothing." F: "You're a strange man, Luke Bramley." M: "You noticed." F: "So where are you now?" M: "I'm in the City of Angels, flexing my wings." F: "You're in LA?" M: "Just around the corner, Kadi. Been in town for a week, watching and waiting." F: "Watching?" M: "Watching you, and the Doctor of course. He's looking well. Seems to have no problems getting in and out of the TARDIS these days, either." F: "I thought as much. He hasn't said, but he's been disappearing off and on for a week or so now. I thought he might be trying to get back in. Seems he could." M: "So, you'll be leaving soon. You'll just going to leave Freddie and Roni, knowing what's going to happen to them?" F: "What else can we do? I've talked to both of them a hundred times. Roni's still clinging to her dreams of stardom, despite all the rejections. Freddie lost his job. He's had a couple more, but he keeps losing control. He's talking about going on the road now. We can't change what's going to happen to them." M: "Is that what the Doctor told you? The web of time and that bollocks?" F: "No. Luke, they were damaged before Hydra got to them. They were never going to be happy." (Sigh.) "If it wasn't this, it would have been something else. Roni would have slept with the wrong guy, or one too many guys for Freddie. Or he'd have ended up back in jail." M: "Maybe." (Pause.) "So, want me to come and wave you goodbye from a suitably discreet distance?" F: "Discreet? You? That would be special." (Both laugh. Pause.) "Or you could come with us." M: "Or not. The world is still my oyster. I'm young and spunky. I have fire in my loins and great big shoes on my feet. All will love me and despair." F: "You'll go mad on Earth in the twentieth century." M: "Been there, done that. Came out the other side, too, with a pretty good chance of being my own grandfather." F: "We could drop you in a more sensible time. It's the least we can do for you." M: "I don't think so. I don't think I can look at the Doctor again. Not without opening wounds that I don't want to see again." F: "I'll talk to him. Let you know when we're leaving. No pressure. If you want to leave, then I won't stop you. But I think you want to give us another chance." M: "Laughs Has anyone ever told you that you'd make an excellent mother?" F: "Several people. But I don't think there's much chance of me ever having kids of my own, so I'll just have to practice on you." M: "You're a good person, Kirena. One of the best." F: "I love you too, shithead." Ends Transcript 4. File Note: This conversation took place ninety two days after the forced termination of Project: CLOCKWORK. This was recorded next to the English Police Call Box identified as anomalous, described in more detail in document GHX/33B. The Box was subsequently removed by parties as yet unknown. Begins Kirena: "Wait. Give him just a couple of more minutes." The Doctor: "You've got a lot of faith in him, Kirena. Possibly more than he has in himself." K: "You could be right. But I said eleven o'clock. That gives him another... thirty seconds?" D: "And here he comes now, right on cue." K: "Remember what we discussed, Doctor." D: "I'll behave." Luke: "Hello, fans. Did you miss me?" K: "Luke? God, I hardly recognised you. That's quite a tan you've got there." L: "The path to self actualisation is paved with excellent sunbathing opportunities." D: "Hello, Luke." L: "Doctor." K: "Well, Luke. Is this goodbye?" pause of around 25 seconds L: "No. Not yet. But soon. I need to get away from here, and this is the only way I can do it." D: "Luke, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." L: "And I'd like to say that I really don't know how you can even begin to live with yourself." D: "Sometimes, nor do I." this point there is a wheezing, groaning noise. After this noise, the conversation ceases. Ends END OF BOOK 3 }}